World markets plunge, media commentators try to predict the consequences of a Greek exit from the Euro, politicians disagree on solutions – while the rest of us feel that we have no status and are subject to forces beyond anyone’s control. What is certain is that the power status of Europe is waning: it’s ageing and debt-ridden, and that could take years to change, if ever.

This is serious because – as is usual in such times – it’s the poor and vulnerable who suffer most.

Those who follow Jesus may be reminded of his sayings about worry and wealth: how radical they sound but how difficult to live by. Yet he didn’t tell everyone he met to give their money away. Jesus was looking for something else from people. He just wanted people to put God at the centre of their lives, so that they and their stuff (lots or little) would be safe.

Safe for the purpose of bringing hope, meaning and purpose to the world, not least for the poor and oppressed.

In a world where markets and stock flotations are the main measures of people’s worth (a certain Mark Zuckerberg will become personally worth $19.1bn later today), it’s pretty good to know that God confers high status on us all indiscriminately. We don’t have to be born to it or earn it. We just have to enter into its fulness, and Jesus shows the way. Find out more at Colchester Vineyard!

Join us for coffee and brunch on Sunday 27 May, at The Playhouse, St John’s Street Colchester, starting at 11.00am. If you’ve ever wondered what we’re all about, come along and ask us. Between the toast and orange juice, we’ll try and give you some sensible answers! Bring a friend too. Send us a message or phone 01206 622712 for more info.

Congratulations to the lively group of Jesus followers down at Brentwood who officially became part of the Vineyard family on Saturday 28 April at our area ‘Closer’ event. Loads of people turned up from Vineyards around Essex and Kent to welcome and celebrate. The worship was led by a Rayleigh Vineyard band, and Libby Woodward from Chelmsford Vineyard gave some encouraging words. We pray Brentwood Vineyard will go from strength to strength as they seek to share and demonstrate Jesus’ message of hope to the Brentwood area.

Riding Lights Theatre Company will be presenting MONSIEUR DE COUBERTIN’S MAGNIFICENT OPYMLIC© FEAT! at St Botolph’s Church, Colchester, on Tuesday 24 April, 7.30pm. If you’d like to join us, let us know soon, as we have to book in advance. More info at the Riding Lights website.

This coming Tuesday, 17 April, 8pm, we’re starting a new homegroup series in which we’ll be taking a look at some parables. Specifically, the ones Jesus told to help people get their heads around something really big: the coming Kingdom of God.

Parables are seemingly simple stories, but the one Jesus constructed are dense with explosive meaning. We’ll be soaking in a bit of the contemporary zeitgeist, listening-in on their telling, and noting the responses Jesus got. Then we’ll see how we respond to their challenge. Essential stuff!  Email for more info.

Jesus had taught that two seemingly separate realms — heaven (God’s realm) and earth — were now coming together. “The Kingdom of God is upon you”, he said, and his close followers were coming to the conclusion that somehow he could be the place where they met.

Cruelly, the events of Friday had put that sort of thinking on hold. But from the Sunday, reports started to come in that he was alive and kicking, and in a new way. Perhaps if earth and heaven were so close, overlapping even, it would be possible for Jesus to pass from one to the other…?

During the days after the Friday-at-the-centre-of-time, some fairly ordinary men and women began to comprehend some extraordinary things about their friend and teacher Jesus. A new age had dawned, they dared believe, brought about by God through their friend. An age where love and hope wins, replacing the old one of pride and retribution. It hadn’t been tried before, so was about as unbelievable as, er… resurrection.

No-one expects resurrections — even in ancient times. But our guys had to face something new: something wildly cosmic but oddly gritty had happened in their own seeing and hearing. Somewhat shocked, they concluded that their friend Jesus was the first of a new creation, of a new way of living on earth, of a new relationship with God. They soon realised that his was a prototype for all people and, though they were very ordinary and unknown, they would have to tell the world.

The long week is drawing to a close. There have been meetings, teaching, eating and treachery. And then confrontation, arrest, abuse, condemnation and execution. But more than a week draws to a close: it’s an entire age that shudders to a stunned halt. This is the Friday at the centre of time. And the world will not be the same again because one special man chose to take on evil in its most fundamental form.

So, it’s the original Palm Sunday, Jesus and the guys are back in Jerusalem, and it’s going to be a long week. Many would not be able to spot it at the time, but this long week could be the most important week the world has ever seen, judged by outcomes. It would not so much be Holy Week, but World Crisis Week, the first the world would experience.

Red alert
During this coming week, Jesus is going to pack in an awesome amount of his foundational teaching, he is going to deliberately ramp up his confrontation with the authorities to a red alert level, and then he will make the final act of self sacrifice to usher in a new age of personal forgiveness and renewal, justice and compassion, and to defeat the evil that was raging against him and the world.

The word holy these days is usually associated with piety, prayer, morality, patron saints, relics; it feels conservative, private, religious. That this cataclysmic week was named Holy is interesting. The pietistic flavour of the title removes it from its proper place in human history into the narrow world of religion – a tragic loss in a secular age.

Retreat?
Anyway, back to World Crisis Week, which all happened because Jesus decided it would. Imagine, however, if Jesus had done something different – perhaps taught some more insightful things, but before events turned ugly, had slipped out into the desert, headed for the Dead Sea, and joined a retreat with the Essenes. There he could pursue his theological studies (while doing some scroll-writing for the community – there were lots of scrolls still to do), and perhaps get back into a little carpentry and make the coffee table his mum had always wanted.

What would things be like now? Unrecognisable. Think of it like this and you get a glimpse of just how much Jesus has changed – and is changing – the world.

Crisis is good for us
And the crisis, or crises, continue. Jesus is always bringing crisis – to individuals, organisations, nations, religions (even Christianity). But they’re always crises with good outcomes: crises over whether to fight or forgive, to abuse or nurture, to take or to give, to hate or love, to cover up or confess, to go our own way or God’s.

Join us for coffee and brunch next Sunday 1 April, at The Playhouse, St John’s Street Colchester, starting at 11.00am. If you’ve ever wondered what we’re all about, come along and ask us. Between the bacon and fried bread, we’ll try and give you some sensible answers! Bring a friend too. Email or phone 01206 622712 for more info.

Next Sunday (25 March), we plan to go ‘treasure hunting’ – and hope to bless people in Colchester through it. We’ll meet together for lunch at 1.00pm, and then get to work. Email info@colchestevineyard.org or phone 01206 622712 for more info.

By way of preparation, at this evening’s homegroup Michelle will take us through a refresher workshop on hearing God for words of knowledge and prophecy.

The figures seem unbelievable: 27 million people worldwide the victims of human trafficking and slavery. Thankfully, some amazing people are taking risks and doing something about it. See below for a way to support just one organisation.

At yesterday’s Goggle Works party, a brilliant team measured, labelled and packaged 235 glasses ready for shipping to Malawi. Lots more glasses were sorted and washed and made ready for the next measuring session. Also, the team checked and packaged many empty glasses cases; good strong cases are highly valued where most people do manual work and homes are too small for cupboards and drawers.

Join us for coffee and brunch this coming Sunday 26 February, at The Playhouse, St John’s Street Colchester, starting at 11.00am. If you’ve ever wondered what we’re all about, come along and ask us. Between the bacon and fried bread, we’ll try and give you some sensible answers! Bring a friend too. Email or phone 01206 622712 for more info.

This guy lives in Malawi, south eastern Africa, and he’s pretty pleased because he’s just been prescribed some glasses. He got them at a mission hospital, but could not have afforded them from an optometrist in the nearest city. Glasses such as these have been donated by people in the Colchester area, and we collect them in partnership with Focus on Malawi.

We’ve had loads more donated in the past two months, so they need to be checked, cleaned, measured and labelled. And we’d love you to help us do this by coming to our next Goggle Works party. It will be on Friday, 24 February, at 7.30pm.

Full training provided (it’s very simple, really) and to help the evening along, there will be plenty of coffee, tasty Africa-style nibbles, and even the odd bottle of wine! For more details, email Sue.

Last week it was Vineyard annual conference time at Trent Vineyard, Nottingham – a brilliant few days of inspiration and equipping . Over a thousand delegates from UK, Ireland and the continent turned up. There was a rich programme of main speaker events and seminars, with lots to take home and unpack over the coming months. Find out more about the conference here.